Three-year-old Emily Szombati began using Angel Flight Australia when she was four months old, flying from Wagga Wagga to Sydney for heart surgery.
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After relocating to Bega, Emily and her mother Julie Szombati departed from Merimbula Airport for the first time on their tenth Angel Flight on Thursday, May 31.
Ms Szombati and her daughter are normally in for the long haul drive to Sydney every three to six months for appointments at the Sydney Children’s Hospital.
“We normally drive to Sydney, this is the first time in the last 12 months we have been given a flight.”
“She has had issues with her ears, she has grommets in her ear and that is what we are going there for today to check everything is working well,” she said.
Ms Szombati is relieved that the biggest hurdle with Emily’s health is in the past, she now looks positively into the future.
“All of the horrible stuff with her heart has been fixed so that was the worst of it.”
“Her heart is good now, she has had cleft palatte problems but had that repaired when she was 18 month old, she couldn’t eat with her condition and had a nasal tube until she was seven months old,” she said.
It brought tears to my eyes when they rang up the other day and said they got us flights.
- Julie Szombati
Ms Szombati is very grateful of Angel Flight she said, “the service is brilliant.”
“It brought tears to my eyes when they rang up the other day and said they got us flights.”
“They are all just so awesome,” she said.
Angel Flight pilot Ray Vincent is one of 3000 who volunteer their time to fly patients and their carers from rural areas to the city to receive their medical treatments.
“All of the pilots pay for their own expenses besides fuel costs, then there are then a further 4000 earth angels who meet at the airport and drive people where they need to go or to where they are staying,” Mr Vincent said.
Among other charity work of his, Mr Vincent set himself a new challenge to complete the 250 hours required up in the air to receive his pilots licence and volunteer for Angel Flight.
“I get a lot of satisfaction out of flying people to the city, people who genuinely need help. It is a good feeling being able to help,” he said.
Mr Vincent said the trip to Sydney will be “a quick one” with plenty of tail wind behind behind them.
